# WOW Heating and Cooling Humidor!!!! Shenzhen Raching Technology Co



## kbdillard (Aug 2, 2015)

Has anyone heard of this product being sold in the USA? I currently have a Whynter CHC-251S and it doesn't work very well for me here in the chihuahuan desert of west Texas. Any info would be much appreciated. This is the most awesome thing I have ever seen.


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## magoo6541 (Mar 9, 2014)

The pictures are too small to really read. This kind of looks like a nicely converted Eurocave wine cellar. You can convert one yourself though.

Look for an used Eurocave wine cellar. Check papers, craigslist, eBay, whatever. They're very expensive new but can be found used at very reasonable prices. The search can take a while but it will be worth it in the end.

I spent less than what most people spend on a small 28 bottle thermoelectric wineador and I got a 250 bottle unit with Spanish Cedar shelving that will easily accommodate 100+ boxes of cigars. Mine is a bit older but will cool and heat but the hydrating and monitoring is up to me (The older ones are actually designed to achieve 70%RH by themselves (won't get in to how they do it here)). The new units you can even set your RH level but I would imagine they would be harder to come by on the used market.


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## kbdillard (Aug 2, 2015)

magoo6541 said:


> The pictures are too small to really read. This kind of looks like a nicely converted Eurocave wine cellar. You can convert one yourself though.
> 
> Look for an used Eurocave wine cellar. Check papers, craigslist, eBay, whatever. They're very expensive new but can be found used at very reasonable prices. The search can take a while but it will be worth it in the end.
> 
> I spent less than what most people spend on a small 28 bottle thermoelectric wineador and I got a 250 bottle unit with Spanish Cedar shelving that will easily accommodate 100+ boxes of cigars. Mine is a bit older but will cool and heat but the hydrating and monitoring is up to me (The older ones are actually designed to achieve 70%RH by themselves (won't get in to how they do it here)). The new units you can even set your RH level but I would imagine they would be harder to come by on the used market.


Thanks, for the info. I know the pictures are small but I don't have enough posts to put the link to there web page up. It say's the units are $500/600 USD whole sale. Plus shipping from China i'm sure. It looks like some kind of heat pump with a wet membrane for humidification then when it dehumidifies it returns the condensate to the sump. I just know I need something like that here is the desert the thermoelectric wineadors just don't cut it here in west Texas. Ambient temps are just to high. Thanks again for the info I check out the Eurocave.


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## KaChong (Jan 1, 2012)

You piqued my curiosity so I gave it a google:

humidor cigar watch box wooden electric cigar humidor Spanish cedar racks wooden cigar cabinet humidor cigar cutter with bottle, View cigar cutter with bottle opener, Raching or OEM Product Details from Shenzhen Raching Technology Co., Ltd. on Alibab

I have to say that I like some of the features that they included. I get the feeling that they have someone with some HVAC background designing their humidor. There are some features that I have tried very hard to replicate with my own compressor humidor build with some limited success. It's nice to see a company building humidors with some real engineering.

http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/v...about-fixing-vinodor-condensation-issues.html
Stogies by Airsoft-Innovations | Photobucket

My picture links are dead and for some reason I can't figure out how to edit the page. I think the pic links died when the site went offline awhile ago. The second link is my Photobucket gallery with some pics pertaining to my post.

I sure like how the Raching is using the cooling hardware to do bulk humidity removal. I've been thinking of getting into Arduino to do active dehumidification in my humidor with a separate Peltier block with the hot side sunk to my cooling panel. Initially it seems logical to use the bulk cooling hardware to do the dehumidification, but my concern is that I would end up having a large wet area in my humidor after a dehumidification cycle. Furthermore the heat sinks would get soggy and so would the fan motor bearings that are attached to the heat sinks. This is bad for bearing life and to be honest I think mold growth in the evaporator panel could become a problem. I would run a smaller Peltier panel that is junctioned to a copper condensor panel that runs down into a drip try. Copper has antimicrobial properties which I think would make it an ideal condensor surface that wouldn't get foul. Currently I put a big ice pack in a glass casserole dish wrapped in a towel for external insulation to actively condense excess moisture. It's not a "nice" solution, but it's been hot and humid for quite some time and my Boveda packs have gotten totally saturated. KL is not keeping up even with periodic drying out in an oven, but an ice pack to condense moisture is hauling moisture out quite well. They seem to be good for 4hrs of condensing and I can pull the percentage down about 2% per pack. I'm not sure how long it's going to take for the cigars to give up some of their excess humidity, but they seem to be smoking better already.

Raching's "high backpressure compressor" is a great feature. I think they're running a higher pressure in their evaporator section which is raising the saturation temperature of whatever refrigerant they are using. They are probably using a custom compressor to do this as most industry would want higher temperature differentials. I couldn't modify my compressor to do this because it is a sealed unit, but I did junction the evaporator panel to a big thick slab of aluminum which seems to be doing a good job of having enough thermal "mass" to present a surface that isn't getting cold enough to condense during a short compressor cycle. I wish I could have afforded to use copper, but it'd be hundreds of bucks of copper in that plate. I would have liked copper for it's mold inhibiting properties.

I am not crazy about their humidification feature. The open ports on those boxes are going to constantly circulate air even if those fans are not running. They'll circulate less air, but I would be happier if they put some light covers over those openings that would blow open when the fans are running so they stay substantially closed when no humidification is necessary.

The front and back forced air circulation is a good feature. It can be hard to assure that you don't have stagnation spots in a humidor, especially when it's crammed full of boxes. They should put a wire rack in the back to assure a clearance between boxes and the back wall. It is easy to cram in a box too far and block circulation through the back.


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